Alex Neil Norwich City manager reaction after a 2-0 Championship play-off final win over Middlesbrough at Wembley.
Middlesbrough vs Norwich City 25/05/2015 Championship play-off final
CANARIES SOAR TO INSTANT PREMIER LEAGUE RETURN
Norwich City beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in Championship play-off final at Wembley to return to complete an immediate return to the Premier League.
Goals from Cameron Jerome, who capitalised on a mistake from Daniel Ayala, and Nathan Redmond, with a powerful angled drive, put Norwich deservedly ahead within 15 minutes.
That came after Bradley Johnson and Jelle Vossen had exchanged hits of the opposition bar in in a game played at a frantic tempo throughout infront of a raucous 85,636 crowd.
Norwich dominated the first-half and Boro improved after the break though both sides were unable to create significant further chances, leaving the Canaries set to benefit from an estimated £120m financial windfall.
The game began frantically as both bars were rattled within a minute of each other through shots from the edge of the box, after crosses were not cleared.
Firstly this happened Johnson managed this for Norwich after a delivery from Stephen Whittaker, then Jelle Vossen for Boro on the counter-attack. That came after a ball in from through marauding full-back George Friend – the clearance from Sebastian Bassong was far too casual.
Norwich led two minutes later as ex-Canary Daniel Ayala was robbed by Cameron Jerome near the corner flag in an act of careless defending. The striker then took the ball into the box and slotted in from a tight angle to claim his 21st goal in an impressive season – quite the bargain having been signed for just £1.5m from Stoke City last summer.
The Canaries doubled their lead soon afterwards through good interplay from Whittaker, Hoolahan and Redmond down the right, culminating in the winger scoring with a powerful angled drive across the goalkeeper.
Thereafter Norwich held the majority of the possession until after the interval, when Boro improved slightly, though more opportunities on goal were limited.
Boro striker Patrick Bamford was isolated aside from one speculative effort and a heavy touch after getting in behind, whilst the Canaries were content with their lead.
Both benches were utilised though had relatively little impact – Norwich withdrew both the goal scorers to deserved standing ovations, whilst Middlesbrough sought further attacking thrust to no avail.
Ultimately it was the fast start from Norwich that secured them a deserved victory and promotion, a s from manager Alex Neil – the Canaries were 7th in the Championship when he took over in January 2015.

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